Berankis could be tough - assuming they both get that far.
After a couple of loose games, he played almost error free tennis beating Wardy in Marseille. Having said that, Evo's style is very different to Wardy so perhaps the match up will be different.
Nothing would surprise me from Dan this week. If he plays the way he has done in some of his recent matches he could cruise to the title without dropping set but Dan being Dan a first round defeat is always possible.
I'm not sure Dan will be up for this - i'll predict 1st round straight sets defeat. I hope I'm completely wrong.
Hopefully he is up for it because he has 7 weeks to pick up around 100 points that he needs to be a main draw direct acceptance at the French Open. That seems like a while but in that time he has qualifying at Indian Wells and Miami, two tournaments where the large draw size means that points in the early stages are not that generous, a possible challenger in Irving where the field will be very strong and then you are into the clay season (easily his worst surface). A good week here could be the difference between getting the points he needs and missing out.
I do feel sorry for Dan a lot of the time. Obviously he's a very up and down sort of player who constantly divides people's opinions, but I'm not sure it's fair to say he's only had one decent tournament since the US open. My main concern in the past was that he didnt turn up for the matches that he was expected to win (against lower ranked players etc), so I was pleasantly surprised to see him push on and qualify in marseille. He just had a tough 1st round match against a solid experienced opponent. Hopefully this is a sign that he's turned a corner somewhat and he'll really push on from here. All the best to him if that is the case.
I do feel sorry for Dan a lot of the time. Obviously he's a very up and down sort of player who constantly divides people's opinions, but I'm not sure it's fair to say he's only had one decent tournament since the US open. My main concern in the past was that he didnt turn up for the matches that he was expected to win (against lower ranked players etc), so I was pleasantly surprised to see him push on and qualify in marseille. He just had a tough 1st round match against a solid experienced opponent. Hopefully this is a sign that he's turned a corner somewhat and he'll really push on from here. All the best to him if that is the case.
I tend to agree. He obviously tailed off after the US Open last year. Just 2 matches won in 4 challenger events obviously wasn't great but there was some mitigation. Klahn has been on an outstanding run and has stormed into the top 100, the match against Jenkins was apparently in atrocious conditions and Gojowczyk is another player on the up.
As for this year, Dan has played 17 matches winning 12 and losing 5. Those 5 defeats include Haas and Gulbis who are very, very good players and Stakhovsky who on his day is a very good player. Yes the defeats to Fucsovics and Phau were a little disappointing but all in all it has been a very positive start to the season from him. Taking a set off Gulbis is something that Dimitrov, Del Potro and Gasquet have all failed to do in the last week.
That doesn't mean it's wrong to criticise certain things but that should be in the context of a good start to the year. 12 months ago Dan had picked up just 5 points from his first three futures tournaments of the year and was ranked 356. He had dropped off the radar for a few weeks (he was actually on holiday in the US with his then girlfriend) and wasn't on any entry lists. A week later he proceeded to turn up for qualifying at the Shrewsbury futures and won the event and while there have been a few blips he hasn't really looked back since then. In his post final interview in Shrewsbury he said he aimed to make the top 100 with a couple of years but I doubt even his most ardent fans expected him to be up to 124 just a year later.
-- Edited by RJA on Saturday 22nd of February 2014 10:37:44 PM
I agree with all the above comments and I'd like to re-iterate that I'm one of Dan's biggest fans. He has played well this year, it is just that he has only picked up good points only once since the USO. I can understand that he has had a taste of the big time and wants to play only on the big stage. It is admirable to set your sights high, to be ambitious. However, he needs the points that going deep into Challenger events will bring. And for Dan, getting to a challenger SF should not be difficult, especially as he will be seeded.
Somebody mentioned needing points to gain entry into the French Open. I;m not sure that entry into the French is all that important - he is never going to be a great clay court player. The clay court season is when he should go on hols or maybe play the pair of Challengers in Korea. I'm sure his GF would appreciate a few days in the city of light though, and it is easier and quicker to get to from London than most other tournaments apart from Wimbledon and Queen's....